Past and Present by Zaratan Volume 2 -Reflections-
by levi2000a1
Summary: A point in time before Michelle Stoppable fell in love with Michael Sanders, before they even met. What was it like for one of their parents, trying to deal with the past? The cover picture itself is a slightly altered version of one of Hotrod2001's. "Not-Your-Fathers-Kigo." He has given me permission to both use and alter it and I very grateful.


All characters and places in this story belong to the Disney Corporation, just like Lucasfilm,

ESPN, Pixar, Marvel, Jim Henson Productions and ABC do.

The original creators were Mark McCorkle and Robert Schooley.

I receive nothing for the writing of this story.

This is based on the story "Past and Present," by Zaratan, used with his permission.

(Gee that was nice to say.)

Thank you's, once again, go out to CajunBear73 for his beta reading and polishing my rough edges.

This is a little side story that will fall outside the timeline of the regular story. There's no way to insert it into the main story now so this is just a little background for it.

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She had to get to Drakken's lair quickly to rescue Ron. He'd been captured by Shego on Drakken's orders so they could hold him for ransom for something or other. Kim didn't even know what it was they wanted.

Didn't know. Didn't care. They had Ron. That was all that mattered to her. And once she had him safe, she knew two villains that were going to regret their idea of threatening him. The man she loved.

It wasn't till she got just outside the island lair that she'd realized that they'd finally gotten smart and had block her communication signal with Wade so besides missing Ron, she was also missing Wade, which meant that she was totally on her own now.

Didn't matter. She had to do this. She had to do this for Ron's sake.

She didn't run in to any of Drakken's lackeys so getting in was fairly easy. It was what she found in the central area that stopped her in her tracks. In the center of the open space stood Shego with a scalpel in her hand next to a moaning Ron who was tied spread eagle to an examination table. Blood dripped off its surface in a slow and steady pattern to splatter on the floor forming a growing puddle.

Kim could only stand there and watch the horror of Shego finishing her last cut, cutting a chunk of flesh from Ron's leg about the size and shape of an orange slice, the objective being to prevent the bleeding from stopping on its own but not allow him to die too quickly. It was a version of the 'Death by a Thousand Cuts.' They'd read about it in ancient history class.

As Shego stood up, she peeled off a latex glove and threw it on the floor. It was only then that she even noticed Kim standing there. Well, hey Cupcake! I wasn't sure if you were going to get here in time to say goodbye or not. He only has about another fifteen minutes left."

One glance at Ron's prone form told Kim that Shego was right. There was no way short of getting him into a full ER in the next minute that all the bleeding could be stopped before he died.

With tears forming in her eyes, she glared at Shego and growled, You _Bitch_! You goddamn evil **monster**!"

Shego had just finished removing the second bloody glove when she threw it at Kim's face as her own twisted into a snarl, "How dare _you_, you smug little miss prissy ass! He knew what was going to happen! Even before I started…he knew."

To Kim's look of shock, "Why? Because I told him. I told him exactly what I was going to do."

"He didn't beg for mercy. He didn't plead, asking me not to do it.", Shego said before smirking at the redhead, "Wanna know the one thing he asked for?", she paused, "Do ya? His soon-to-be dying wish?", Shego taunted.

"All he wanted, was a chance to say good-bye to the woman he loved."

Kim couldn't reply to that. Her mind had gone into shutdown.

"You should be gratefully that I'm putting him out of his misery before he could find out what kind of a person you really are.", the green villainess' eyes narrowed.

"What?", stammered Kim in confusion.

"You were going to try and control him and make him like you thought he should be by breaking up with him."

Kim shook he head as she was trying to deny what she was hearing.

"You might as well have taken a knife and stabbed him in the heart. But no, you had to do it in a way that let him bleed for over fifteen years.", she said as she looked over the bloody carnage on the table. "So slow that he didn't even know what was happening to him.

Curtly nodding to her, "_You_…were the one that would force him into another woman's arms, into knocking up that _bitch_, Bonnie…", Shego paused again. "_You_…", she spat, "would have caused that…and what would you do to fix things?

"Nothing…Just run away and cry about it. Maybe find comfort in another man's arms. One that you won't even know hardly at all."

Shego started to walk out of the room directly past a stunned Kim.

"You call me evil? Here.", she said as she thrust a mirror into Kim's gloved hands. "Best check yourself before you start throwing words around that you _don't_ understand."

Kim turned back to Ron to say goodbye, completely at a loss of what Shego had said to her about him and her, but as she did, she heard him cry out her name just before he raised his head to look at her.

When he saw her, he screamed, "Haven't you done _enough_? Just give me some peace and let me _die_ without you being here to watch it."

Ashamed, Kim looked down to her hands and saw that she was wearing mismatched gloves; black and green. Raising the mirror up to look in it, she saw that her red hair was no longer there, replaced with hair so black that it had a green sheen to it. Her complexion had changed to pale green color and her purple top was now a green and black jumpsuit.

She was Shego…and she _was_ evil.

She screamed; the sound was so loud that it woke her up with a start. Quickly throwing the blankets off she sat up in her bed and tried to calm herself after turning on the bedside light to see that it was 2:00 AM.

Her husband sat up to hold her, asking if she was alright.

"It was just a bad dream Josh. I'll be alright.", Kim shakily assured him.

A knowing look, "It was that same dream again, wasn't it?"

She almost denied it; she didn't want to him to think that she didn't love him or that she was unable to deal with her past. Or the same stupid dream that haunted her. She'd thought she'd gotten over it since it had been over a year since she'd last had it. Instead she finally said, "Yeah. It was."

"I guess I should have expected after that little _surprise_ tonight."

This had been one of those nights when she had to work late so her husband and their son were supposed to go out and pick up a couple of Pizzas for dinner that night. She arrived home at the same time that Joshua Sanders pulled into the drive with dinner.

"Where's Michael?", she asked as she gave Josh a quick peck on the cheek.

"He had a report due for his Junior art class and he wanted to get started on it instead of going with me. Something about comparing current animation techniques to previous ones. He's watching some old DVD.", he explained as they went into the kitchen.

As he stared getting plates and drink for serving their meal, Kim said, "I'll just go in and let him know we're home and that dinner will be in just a few."

As she walked towards the living room, she could hear singing. Some children singing a song that sounded familiar, but it wasn't till she walked through the archway and could see what it was her son was watching on the big screen TV that she knew for sure what it was. The cartoon Michael was watching was _The__Six Tasks of Snowman Hank_.

She didn't run crying from the room like she'd done when her brothers had switched the TV over to that show so many Christmases ago, but she didn't ask Michael to turn it off either. She couldn't. The song that was playing had just reached the point where Ron always joined in to sing along...and she could almost hear his voice.

She had no idea how long she stood there behind her son till Joshua came in to announce dinner. When he saw her standing stock still, he glanced at the TV and knew what was happening to her. He'd been there that Christmas day when she came into the kitchen crying and after his Mother-in-law explained the significance of the old cartoon special, Joshua went in to _talk_ to her brothers. If James hadn't come in when he heard the angry voices, it might have really been a _Christmas to remember, _and not a good memory at that.

"Son, turn it off please."

"What?", said Michael as he turned around and saw that both of his parents were in the room, his mom with a look of shock on her face, his dad's, of concern.

"Turn it off, _please_.", Josh said with a tone that had more of a command than a request in it.

After Michael quickly turned it off, Josh suggested to Kim that she go ahead and start dishing up the Pizza. A few moments after she left the room, Josh quietly asked his son to finish watching the show in his room and to use his headphones.

"Dad? Did I do something wrong?"

"No son. It's just that your mother used to watch that program every year with a good friend and it always reminds her of that time. Her friend is...no longer around.", he finished letting his son reach his own conclusions from that misleading statement.

Later that night, he'd suggested to her that she might want to take something to help her sleep. Of course she refused, she didn't want to depend on a prescription to allow her to get through the night.

Back in the present, she gave him a halfhearted smile as she said, "Maybe I should have listened to you about that pill."

"Honey, why don't you try and get in touch with him, just to say you're sorry."

She thought a few seconds as she wondered how many times she thought about doing just that, but she still came to the same conclusion that 'forgiveness' would probably be the _last_ thing Ron would want to give her after what had happened between them. So she shook her head and said, "I think maybe I'd better go and take one of those pills. I've got a full day tomorrow and so do you." She kissed him before she went to the bathroom.

Joshua rolled over to wait for her return, He had a plan. If everything that her parents had told him about Kim's former boyfriend was true, then he would probably only forgive her if he knew what was going on. He also knew that the final fire inspection would be due for the man's renovation work that was going on at his restaurant, expanding it seating capacity and remodeling the kitchen area next month.

He also knew that the owner himself would be there himself for that, as well as the Grand-reopening. As Chief of the Middleton Fire Department, Joshua could either assign that inspection to one of the other firemen or do it himself. He thought he'd do it himself and try to have a word with Mr. Stoppable. A gentle word about a former friend.

It was with those thoughts that he drifted off to sleep that night, not knowing that in less than a week, he would be involved in an automobile accident that would claim his life. He had time to scribble **I heart U K+M** in his own blood before passing out, never to be revived.

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To be continued in the story _Past and Present by Zaratan Volume 2._

As always, if you have a question about something or you find an error, drop me a note, a review or put it in a comment.


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